Ponce de León, Juan , c.14601521, Spanish explorer, first Westerner to reach Florida. He served against the Moors of Granada, and in 1493 he accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to America.

From 1502 to 1504 he assisted in the conquest of Higuey (the eastern part of Hispaniola, now the Dominican Republic) and was made governor of that province. After finding gold on Boriquén (Puerto Rico) in 1508, he conquered the island and, as governor (150912), made a fortune in gold, slaves, and land.

Hearing tales from the Carib of a wonderfully rich island called Bimini, said to be N of Cuba, Ponce de León secured a commission (1512) to conquer and colonize that land. There is a legend that he was seeking a spring with waters having the power of restoring youth.

From Puerto Rico on Mar. 3, 1513, with three vessels, he sailed NE through the Bahamas, sighting the Florida peninsula (which he took to be an island) late in March and landing near the site of St. Augustine early in April. Probably because his arrival in Florida occurred at the time of the Easter feast (Pascua Florida), Ponce de León named the land (which he claimed for Spain) La Florida.

He turned south, exploring the coast to Key West, and proceeded up the west coast as far as Cape Romano... continued at: Infoplease

From the beginning, the human race has progressed to higher and more efficient life styles. The various Indian cultures banded together into what we now call tribes. Those that were here when Columbus made his voyage are referred to as historic Indians or pre-Columbian Indians. Therefore, with the arrival of the white man and his written language, out went the prehistoric times and in came the historic times. Fragments of written evidence, such as hand written ship logs and guides (derroteros) began to appear.

At the beginning of the historic period, in 1492 AD, it is conservatively estimated that there were about 100,000 Indians living in Florida. Some estimate as many as 350,000. Accepting the first estimate, the distribution is thought of as this: Timucuans in the northeast, 40,000; Apalachee and Pensacola in the northwest, 25,000; Tocobaga in the west-central, 8,000; Calusa in the southwest, 20,000; Tequesta in the southeast, 5,000; Jeaga, Jobe and Ais in the east-central, 2,000.

There were others, as well as sub-groups, i.e., Saturiwa, Santaluces, Boca Ratones, Tocobaga, etc. By the late 1700s, it is thought that all of these indigenous Indians were gone. Also, note that there is no mention of the Seminoles, as they did not enter Florida until the early 1700s.

Please be aware that all these Indian names, and those given later, were names given by their so-called educated new world explorers, primarily Europeans. The presumed names would be recorded phonetically by each writer. Even the Seminoles, who are not indigenous Florida Indians, never did -and still do not- call themselves Seminoles when speaking privately among themselves.

There exists considerable debate about which historic Indians were the early inhabitants of the Keys. Historians are relatively certain that the Florida West Coast Calusa was dominant and exercised political control over the east coast Tequesta's. However, the two tribe's pottery differs and fragments of pottery found in the Keys often indicate presence of the Tequesta, but the living areas (middens) were shell mounds indicating Calusa.

There is also mounting evidence that the Caribbean Island Indians may have also inhabited the Keys. The present archaeological evidence is not conclusive, other than the general reference by early European travelers to the Matecumbes as the Keys Indians.

Another explanation is that the Calusa was actually a confederation of other tribes including the Tequesta, Ais, Jeaga and others. All of these major tribes are thought to have been composed of sub-tribes usually named after their respective chiefs, possibly giving rise to names like Matecumbes, Bahiahondas and Biscaynos. The latter were the names prevalently used by the early European travelers to the Keys and the former names to those of the mainland.

This compares with a person who could be described as Irish, American, Floridian, Dade Countian and Miamian, but there is still only one person. Ethnology deals with not only the place of origin, but with subsequent divisions and distributions.

I recommend that the serious Florida Keys' Indian student consult the 1991 and 1994 published books by John Hann titled Missions to the Calusa, Tacachale edited by Milanich and Proctor, and Florida's First People by Robin C. Brown.

One problem that I found was when the Spanish used the word transcribed as " Cayo or Key", how does one know if it is the Monroe County Keys or some other Florida Key such as those on Florida's west coast. The only time I feel certain is when they refer to the Martyrs. Often the term "Keys Indians" included the Calusa, Tequesta and other south Florida Indians.

The Spanish did most of the early historic writings of the Keys and the following is presented to introduce the Indian/Spanish attitude in these early times.

When Christopher Columbus made his second voyage to Cuba in 1494 with his son Diego as second in charge, the Indians were absolutely friendly. Seventeen years later, when Diego sent Diego Velasquez to Cuba, he was greeted with a cloud of arrows. Chief Hatuey had crossed the Windward Passage from Hispaniola to Cuba and had informed the local natives how terribly the Spanish in Hispaniola were treating the Indians.

Ponce de Leon was not treated as badly by the Florida Indians on his first trip in 1513 as he was on his second voyage in 1521. It is generally assumed that Spanish slave ships had visited the Florida coast in between De Leon's voyages and had alienated the Indians.

The slavers were visiting the Americas as early as 1502. It was reported that the Indians screamed Spanish words at Ponce de Leon on his second trip. How else could they have so quickly learned Spanish words? More on Ponce later...

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